Monday, 10 September 2018

It looks like Winter is trying to get here... or maybe Fall... in Oregon, it is all about the rain.

Today is not a great day, but I want to get back into my posting pattern for this blog.  I have been working on my daily planning sheet and working toward posting on my other blogs, mostly associated with Working Together, so things are getting figured out.  There is never enough time, and sometimes not enough energy, for everything... we just keep moving forward the best we can.  :-)

I was able to grocery shop on Sunday, so a lot of "food prep" has been happening.  I need to find a better (SMALL) refrigerator... this one is freezing food, so that is an issue... when it is food that can't be frozen for later.  Food is MONEY... lots of money... for my budget.

I have FOUR weeks to go with this batch of food, and only a small reserve of funds in my budget for more fresh supplies.  I keep trying to find a good way to buy fresh produce... and make it last.  :-)  I am trying to see how long melons will last right now.  I have a watermelon, a honeydew, and a cantaloupe, in various stages of ripeness.  I ate one watermelon already, and it was very ripe... and good.  If I can make them last at one per week, that will be great.  I have no idea how to tell if a honeydew melon is ripe, but the cantaloupe has a ways to go.

Avocados are a challenge.  I know they grow in California, but I don't know if they have a particular season yet.  I am trying to figure out how to buy "in season" foods and avoid commercial processes.  Figuring out what grows locally is another goal to help with that seasonal issue.

One of my avocado seeds is growing... so I need to decide when to bring it in or how to protect it from the squirrels and the winter and whatever else kills avocado seeds trying to grow into a tree.  :-)  In my entire life, I have only had ONE avocado seed grow into a starting tree... this will be the second.  The first one met an untimely death... and I grieved for it.  I hope this one will make it through.

I have been ill today, so there isn't much to share with you.

I heard part of a program with Mathew Hagee as I was checking channels earlier, at the end of watching some news to see what was going on.  It was a repeat program about the dominoes falling in the End Times.  It reminded me again how hard it is going to be for people who have put their faith in what is called "the Rapture" to keep them from suffering what is ahead for the world.  I only caught the end of the presentation, with the unveiling of the Rapture event in their popular theology. The idea is that GOD is going to save His People from suffering the Tribulation, and He is going to do it with the Rapture.

I sometimes catch different views of this perspective on Christian programs.  The "Left Behind" series kind of made it a gospel of its own.  One idea that keeps getting repeated is that the church will not be in the world when the Tribulation horrors happen... so making the "Rapture" the way GOD does that is easy to believe.  I see the Rapture as the final moments of all existence as we know it, when Christ comes for judgment... way at the end of all these Tribulation sufferings.  When I heard the explanation about the church not being here, I understood why it took off as a way to make death by the Antichrist a non-subject.  I see the Mark of the Beast and death by the Antichrist as the way we are removed from this life.

It is a complicated mess in the church... all the divided denominations have to declare their own ideas of what they believe is the right answer.  Then everyone gets "firmly planted" in that viewpoint and nothing else is allowed in the conversation.  This is how humans work, how organizations work, how causes are created and maintained... any of them.  These divisions are why I hoped to create my "40 Days in the Wilderness" event every summer... to get the discussions going... to make people decide for themselves, hear all the sides of the arguments, and try to make us ONE BODY in Christ.

After some time and thought, I realized this event could become the fulfillment of another prophecy about the end of all things, that everyone would hear the gospel... everyone, all over the world.  Technology would make that a reality.

It's scary, but that is how GOD works... He has shared these details with us in a way that makes us have to think about the Truth, be ready to die and be judged at any moment of our lives, and to prove His authority over all we know.  Prophecy, in GOD's view, is one way He establishes His credibility with Man.

When I was watching the Hagee presentation, I wished there was some way to reach all those people who think they won't have to suffer because they believe the Rapture will save them from it.  I don't know how to do that, in my current circumstances, so I just keep thinking that GOD will do something to help them discover there is more than one way to see what is in the Bible.... and the Enemy is good at blinding our eyes... and there will one day be a "Great Falling Away" that might be them.

I just want them to see that, so their decision is made by better knowledge... and I want to help us to prepare for what is ahead, together.  Evil will rise, good will decline... that is not going to be a fun time...  I just hope to help as many as I can.

So, that is what channel-flipping has done for me today.  I am now at my desk and trying to make a better plan to solve this information and protection problem.

I hope GOD provides for me and WT soon.


Until next time,
In Christ,

Deborah Martin

work2gather.us
Working Together Inc
Building for the End Times

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May GOD find a way to make those who love Him aware of the different interpretations there are about the Rapture, the Tribulation, the End Times, and the Antichrist.  Amen.